"Swooping" Painting

I can not remember a time when I didn’t love to create art. Even as a small child, all I wanted to do was create art. I explored all types of mediums and ended up becoming a figurative and portrait painter. I mix mediums in my paintings, incorporating paper, pastels, oil, acrylics, and spray paint. The materials I choose are determined by the technique I want to use and the end-result I want to achieve. My work often pushes the boundaries between contemporary surrealism and impressionism. I juxtapose real and implied texture with organic forms creating a very unique style. The figures in my paintings visually push and pull the foreground to the background alternating between two-dimensional a three-dimensional form. My work focuses on exploring womanhood, celebrating female strength and wisdom. I do have personal symbolism in my work, but I want the viewer to interpret my work by projecting their own story into my work.
As a child of a military father, I was born in Germany and spent my first six years there. On every opportunity, my family explored the castles, museums, epic landscapes, and forests of Germany. I have fond memories of the grand architecture, sculptures, and the multitude of gardens. My family frequently went to art museums. I remember always getting in trouble for being fixated on a work of art and not keeping up with my family as they wandered from painting to painting. I loved studying the brushstrokes, use of colors and the way the master artists used contrasts of lighting in their paintings. As an adult, I still find myself studying works of art with the same enthusiasm and sense of awe as I had as a child.
I studied art at the University of Colorado earning a B.A. in Fine Art. After UC, I worked as an educator, showing my artwork at venues around the Phoenix, Arizona area, and doing commissions. I recently retired from a career in education, and spend my new time creating art. Stories about me and my art can be found on social media under the name of Gail A McFarland.